Easy to see why the basketball schools would want to be on their own. The champ would still get an automatic bid to the NCAA tourney and they wouldn't be tied to all the Big East football schools.
Those are some pretty strong bball programs.

The Big East football is not effected much by this. They are basically CUSA 2.0 anyway. It actually cleans up the Big East some. You assume some of the football only program will now play all sports there. Not so great of an overall conference though, that's for sure.

Actually DFW, I think this hurts the Big East more because the BBall schools will leave and form their own under whatever name but the remaining, I suspect, are going to have more departures. I can see several of the remaining schools (especially the newly added ones) leaving. San Diego St., Boise, possibly Houston and SMU as well. The big winner here could be the Mountain West, who would probably be interested in several of those schools. The MWC could be the next conference to reach 16.

Actually DFW, I think this hurts the Big East more because the BBall schools will leave and form their own under whatever name but the remaining, I suspect, are going to have more departures. I can see several of the remaining schools (especially the newly added ones) leaving. San Diego St., Boise, possibly Houston and SMU as well. The big winner here could be the Mountain West, who would probably be interested in several of those schools. The MWC could be the next conference to reach 16.

I think the MWC is a better fit for those schools anyway.
The result wouldn't be all that bad of a conference.
Did they add other teams? Just from a quick look it looks like they would be at 12 if they included all those teams that you listed.

I think the MWC is a better fit for those schools anyway.
The result wouldn't be all that bad of a conference.
Did they add other teams? Just from a quick look it looks like they would be at 12 if they included all those teams that you listed.

If they included all of those teams, I think they would be at 13. I could see them picking up BYU again as well.

I think the MWC is a better fit for those schools anyway.
The result wouldn't be all that bad of a conference.
Did they add other teams? Just from a quick look it looks like they would be at 12 if they included all those teams that you listed.

Utah St and San Jose St are also joining the MWC in 2013 so that would be 14 if they added BSU, SDSU, SMU and UH.

There is a real interesting battle between the MWC and the Big East. The winner will easily be the 6th best conference, which is actually very important under the new structure starting in 2014. The problem with BSU, SDSU, Houston, and SMU heading to the MWC is the TV deal. It is horrible, while the Big East is currently negotiating a new one. While the new Big East TV will be far below the big 5, it will still likely be at least 2 to 3 million over what those schools would earn the Mountain West.

I think the Big East could really help itself by creating a all-sports division in the West and invite BYU (not to likely) Fresno, UNLV, and maybe New Mexico. They could mitigate travel costs by mostly playing in their own division while playing a few games/tournaments with the Eastern division.

Not a great football conference, but easily #6 and with Uconn, Cinci, Memphis, Temple, SDSU, UNLV, and New Mexico it would be a heck of a basketball conference.